Author Archives: Jennifer Rohn

About Jennifer Rohn

Scientist, novelist, rock chick

In which the wheel turns

Posted on 8 October 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

Time is a wheel, speeding me along in ever quicker circuits. As individual moments rush towards me, flare into immediacy and then blur past, most are soon forgotten save for those captured as digital images, or in some dashed lines … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In which we land

Posted on 30 July 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

Our migration is complete: my lab now has a new home. And for me, a new office space. Numerous studies have scrutinised the effect of environment on work productivity. Anecdotally, I know that my own focus and output are greatly … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in academia, Nostalgia, Research, Science Funding, Scientific papers, staring into the abyss, The profession of science, work-life balance | Comments Off on In which we land

In which we migrate

Posted on 6 July 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

After about eight years in residence at the Royal Free Hospital, my itinerant scientific journey is about to embark on its next exciting leg. In a few weeks’ time, my lab is uprooting itself and moving to a new home … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In which I am pummelled into viral submission

Posted on 29 May 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

I am only happy to write about this today because I suspect it is finally almost over. I’m no longer so superstitious that I think I’m tempting fate by doing so now. In short, I’ve been ill for a long … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Gardening, Illness, Research, The ageing process | Comments Off on In which I am pummelled into viral submission

In which I head into the wind

Posted on 23 April 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

Sometimes joy and sadness are hard to tease apart – there should be a word for the heavy lightness, or light heaviness, of springtime. This time of year always carries ambivalence: a scrum of flowers unfurl, scenting the air, but … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In which I capture the present, but forget why

Posted on 19 March 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

I have always been a compulsive chronicler, ever since I was a small child starting off my first journal. I still write an entry nearly every day, taking a few months to fill in all the pages with my increasingly … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in academia, art, Domestic bliss, Gardening, Music, Nostalgia, The ageing process, work-life balance, Writing | Comments Off on In which I capture the present, but forget why

In which my lab is a garden

Posted on 29 January 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

It’s a grey afternoon, the light already fading. R. and I have just done a circuit of the back garden – ‘inspecting the troops’, we call it. The entire space is dishevelled, as it always is this time of year: … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In which I step over the edge

Posted on 1 January 2023 by Jennifer Rohn

Another first of January, and I find myself in that fuzzy transition between old and new, between holiday and the resumption of real life. The Christmas tree and its associated trappings give me that look, seeming to realise they they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In which we fall

Posted on 6 November 2022 by Jennifer Rohn

Fireworks crackle in the darkness: yesterday’s Bonfire Night stretching to fill the entire weekend. The torrential rains have given way to an almost full moon, glowing cold-silver in the eastern sky. November is always a positive month, with the cosiness … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in academia, Domestic bliss, Gardening, Joshua, Research, staring into the abyss, students, Teaching, The profession of science, work-life balance | Comments Off on In which we fall

In which I cherish useless facts

Posted on 19 September 2022 by Jennifer Rohn

I’ve just had my first letter to the editor published in the Times (of London, that is, not of New York). It wasn’t an urgent missive about science policy or politics or the state of the world or the Queen’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Nostalgia | Comments Off on In which I cherish useless facts